10 just-released gear and gadgets to make your workout more effective—and more fun!

After you’ve been to enough of them, expos get pretty boring. But walking around the IDEA World Fitness Conference expo—an annual conference in LA that brings together more than 6,000 fitness professionals—another b-word comes to mind: bananas! Impromptu hip-hop dance parties in the aisles, nonstop Zumba with live drumming, parkour (urban gymnastics) demos, yoga-tribal dance fusion, and everything in between made for a ridiculously exciting conference.

We walked the booths—more than 200 of them—to get a sneak peek at the newest gear, gadgets, and apparel out there. Here, the coolest fitness tools that will make your workout more effective (and fun!) than ever.

This isn’t any ordinary medicine ball. It’s weighted with water, which seems simple enough until you realize that the sloshing water is super-hard to control. Doing swings or Russian twists with a Kamagon is more difficult—and more effective—than a regular Russian twist because your core has to engage to control the water’s momentum. Increase or decrease the weight simply by putting in more or less water. The 9-inch ball holds up to 14 pounds, and the 14-inch ball hold up to 45 pounds. ($49.95 for 9-inch ball, kamagonball.com)

When fitness expert Linda LaRue showed us her new collection of workout wear, American Fitness Couture, she started tearing up as we talked about horrific sweatshop conditions so many clothing companies use. American Fitness Couture apparel is made in Los Angeles at facilities that LaRue has personally reviewed for fair working conditions. The apparel features the thickest Spandex blend available (no see-through here!) that lifts and slims. The capris hit just bellow the belly button—a more flattering cut for women who don’t have perfectly flat stomachs—and the tops sport a semi-fitted design that gives shape without squeezing. Our favorite is the Mandarin Top, pictured. (Mandarin Top $58, americanfitnesscouture.com)

If you have tightness in your upper back or calves, the new RumbleRoller Beastie will have you moaning with hurts-so-good joy. Use the stand and two Beasties to massage your calf, take the bar off the stand to roll out your quads, hamstrings, and iliotibial (IT) band, and stand against a wall with the Beastie behind your shoulder blades to break up knots in your upper back. Available in original or firm densities. (Beastie Bar and Stands $59.95, rumbleroller.com)

The Helix Lateral Trainer is an elliptical machine with an identity crisis. Instead of moving the pedals forward to back, you move them in circles side to side. That lateral motion works your outer and inner thighs more than the typical front-to-back elliptical. It’s currently available in many Anytime Fitness and Gold’s Gym franchises, with plans to expand. (helixco.com)

Arm bands are bulky and heavy, fanny packs are dorky and bounce too much, and stuffing your phone in your bra is just plain uncomfortable. Enter the FlipBelt—the salvation to our running-with-our-phone woes. Slide a phone, ID, keys, or gels into the hole in the cylindrical Spandex belt, and just flip it over to secure the opening. The stretchy material hugs against your waist or hips, minimizing bounce. Genius! Available in XS to XL and 10 colors. ($24.99, flipbelt.com)

Created by teen entrepreneur Carter Kostler, Define Bottle Sport let's you enjoy fruit-infused water on the go. Chopped herbs and fruit can be placed into the bottom half of the bottle, while a filter separates the fruit chunks from the top of the section that you drink out of—and presto! Fruit water minus any chunks you could choke on. ($29.95; definebottle.com)

Wrist weights have never been so stylish—or so comfortable. W8FIT’s recently released 4-pocket weight cuff looks like a slim Spandex sweatband and holds from ¼ to 2 pounds. The weights bend slightly, so they don’t dig. A weight belt and ankle cuffs will be released this fall. ($42 for 4-pocket cuff, w8fit.com)

There are dozens of self-massage products on the market—rollers, balls, sticks, and mats in every shape, size, and density. The accuroller is all of them in one: You can change the alignment of the six massage balls on the stick depending on what you’re targeting (small balls in the middle for quads, large balls in the middle for IT band), and use the loops at the end to get into hard-to-reach areas like your middle back. Available this fall. ($29.99; sklz.com)

Vega Sport workout nutrition has a loyal following even among non-vegans for a simple reason: All of its products are made with real ingredients, not lab-created who-knows-what. That’s especially impressive when you consider that the sugar-free pre-workout drink, released only 2 weeks ago, contains no artificial sugars (and still tastes good!). Coconut seed oil, green tea extract, ginseng, potassium, sodium, and ginger provide energy and electrolytes for your workout at only 5 calories per serving. ($1.69 per single serve pack, shop.myvega.com)

Some spots are more tender than others, requiring a softer roller, or else you risk damaging the muscle tissue. But who wants a closet overflowing with different foam rollers? The solution: TheraBand’s brand new foam roller wraps, which come in four different densities and fit over any standard foam roller. ($24.49; shop.performancehealth.com)